Senior attacker Maeve Bañal was phenomenal, scoring 9 goals and an assist for the Tigers, who came back from 7-1 in the first quarter and 10-3 at halftime.

“We were we were looking a little defeated at halftime,” said Tigers’ head coach Rachel Motta. “This group of seniors really brought everything together at halftime. We told them to have confidence in yourself have confidence in each other and just go play Tigers’ lacrosse.”

Bañal, who scored two goals in the first half, caught fire and scored 3 goals in the third quarter as the Tigers cut the lead to 11-8 and scored 4 more in the fourth when Tiverton finally caught the Purple.

“Maeve played unbelievable today,” Coach Motta said. “I’ve always said that if she scores that first goal she has confidence in herself and the way that she played today was what I’ve been waiting for all season.”

Goaltender Elyse Meyers made 18 saves and was instrumental in the win.

“Elyse was thrown in goal as a sophomore,” Coach Motta said. “She works really hard and definitely needs a shout out. My whole defensive line also really picked it up and played well in the second half.”

Coach Motta changed up the Tigers’ defense, particularly how they played against Classical’s Orla Howlett who scored 6 goals in the first half. She assigned Julia Polofsky to shadow the attacker and the pesky senior held her to just 1 goal in the second half.

Tigers confidence grew with each goal

The Tigers gained confidence with each goal scored in the second half. Goals by Maeve McHugh and Bañal sliced the lead to 11-10 with 7:51 left in the fourth quarter and the game was on. Classical forward Orla Howlett won the ensuing face-off, raced downfield and passed to Madelynn Coangelo and she shot it by Meyers, to give the Purple a two goal lead.

The teams traded goals again. Peckham, who scored 4 goals during the game, buried a pass from McHugh and cut the lead to 12-11 with 4:08 left. Then Smera Kapoor scored for Classical and they went back up by two.

Bañal scored two goals in a row after Polofsky won draws, to knot the score at 13-13 with 2:04 to play.

Howlett won the next face off, raced down and scored her 7th goal to give Classical a 14-13 edge with 56 seconds left.

Tigers knot the game 14-14

Polofsky caught the draw over Howlett’s head, then passed to Peckham who saw Bañal running towards the goal. She passed the ball over and the lighting quick senior collected it between two defenders, raced down the right side and buried a shot past goalkeeper Sivan Lund to tie the score 14-14 with 37 seconds left. 

Howlett won the next face and the Purple threatened to score in the remaining time left, but the Tigers’ defense stiffened and Howlett received a penalty for slashing.

Overtime

Polofsky easily won the face-off over to Bañal without Howlett to battle. She ran downfield and saw Peckham down by the goal and whipped the ball to her. Peckham ran between a pair of defenders and beat Lund on the lower right side of the goal. The Tigers ran to her in and they met in celebration.

“I am so proud of this group,” Coach Motta said. “We never gave up and there's no group I'd rather do it with than this one. I'm so excited.”